14. No mention has been made of the reason of Gentile hopelessness, but it is clearly traceable to ignorance of the revelation of the one God (cf. Ephesians 2:12 ἐλπίδαμὴἔχοντεςκ. ἄθεοιἐντ. κόσμῳ), and accordingly the Apostles proceed to lay down the real ground of Christian hope. That ground is the death and resurrection of the historic Jesus (cf. Add. Note D), which, by an impressive irregularity of grammatical structure, are here brought into direct relation not with the resurrection of believers, but, in keeping with the general drift of the Ep., with their return with Christ in glory. εἰγὰρπιστεύομενκτλ.] The use of εἰ in the opening clause of the syllogism instead of throwing any doubt on the belief spoken of, rather makes it more definite, cf. Romans 5:15, Colossians 3:1, and for the conjunction ἀπέθ. κ. ἀνέστη see Romans 14:9, where it is said in the same sense as here εἰςτοῦτογὰρΧριστὸςἀπέθανενκαὶἔζησενἵνακαὶνεκρῶνκαὶζώντωνκυριεύσῃ. The use of ἀπέθανεν in the present passage is specially noticeable in contrast with κοιμᾶσθαι applied to believers (v. 13): it is as if the writers wished to emphasize that because Christ’ s death was a real death, ‘ a death of death,’ His people’ s death has been turned into ‘ sleep.’ Chrys.: ἐπειδὴδὲἦλθενὁΧριστός, καὶὑπὲρζωῆςτοῦκόσμουἀπέθανε, οὐκέτιθάνατοςκαλεῖταιλοιπὸνὁθάνατος, ἀλλὰὕπνοςκαὶκοίμησις (de Coemit. et Cruce, Op. 2:470 ed. Gaume). It may be noted that only here and in v. 16 does St Paul employ ἀνίστασθαι with reference to resurrection from the dead; cf. also the metaph. use in Ephesians 5:14. As a rule he prefers ἐγείρειν, cf. 1:10 and other forty occurrences in his Epp. The subst. ἀνάστασις is found eight times. It is frequent in the inscriptions for the ‘ erection’ of a statue or monument, e.g. Magn. 179, 28 f. ἐπὶτῇἀναστάσειτοῦἀνδριάντος. οὕτωςκαὶὁθεός] ‘ so also (we believe that) God,’ οὕτως virtually resuming the protasis and καὶ, which belongs not to the single word ‘ God’ but to the whole clause, serving to strengthen still further the comparison stated in the apodosis (cf. 2:14 note). Ὁθεός is emphatic: it is the one true God who, as the raiser-up of Jesus, will raise up His people along with Him, cf. 1 Corinthians 6:14, 2 Corinthians 4:14. In order, however, that He may do so there must be a certain oneness between the Head and His members, and it is to the existence of this connecting link in the case of the Thessalonian believers that the next words point. τοὺςκοιμηθένταςδιὰτοῦἸησοῦ] ‘ those that are fallen asleep through Jesus,’ κοιμηθέντας being used with a purely midd. sense, and the instrumental διά pointing to Jesus as the mediating link between His people’ s sleep and their resurrection at the hands of God (cf. διὰτ. ἐνοικοῦντοςαὐτοῦπνεύματος in a similar connexion in Romans 8:11). Stated in full the argument would run: ‘ so also we believe that those who fell asleep through Jesus, and in consequence were raised by God through Him, will God bring with Him.’ This is better than to connect διὰτ. Ἰησοῦ directly with ἄξει. Such an arrangement, while grammatically possible, is not only contrary to the parallelism of the sentence (Ἰης. ἀπέθ. ... τ. κοιμηθ. διὰτ. Ἰης.) and to the analogy of the closely following οἱνεκροὶἐνΧρ. (v. 16), but gives a halting and redundant conclusion to the whole sentence: ‘ God will bring through Jesus along with Him.’ For κοιμηθῆναι see the note on v. 13, and as further illustrating its midd. sense cf. P.Cairo 3, 9 ff. (3./b.c.) ἠνίκαἤμελλονκοιμηθῆναιἔγραψαἐπιστόλιαβ. Dr W. F. Moulton has proposed that in the verse before us the verb may be a true passive ‘ were put to sleep’ (see Moulton Prolegg. p. 162). But however beautiful the sense that is thus obtained, it is not the one that naturally suggests itself. ἄξει] ‘ducet, suave verbum: dicitur de viventibus’ (Beng.). With the thought cf. Asc. Isai. 4:16 quoted above on 3:13.